Information Technology Management: A critical Analysis of Managerial Impediments Facing Information Technology Managers

Abstract

The paper intended to study managerial impediments which may hinder strategy and objective implementation by IT managers and technicians. The managerial drivers included: rules, initiatives, emotions, immediate action and integrity. This paper describes the drivers of strategy implementation by managers in IT departments to implement their organizational objectives. The findings on Perception of IT managers and administrators towards the managerial drivers of objective implementation by IT managers has put a lot of emphasis on rules and the lack of commitment of employees (the dimension of emotions) to explain the obstacles faced by IT managers. Though the finding of our data suggests that a driver of emotions is the most critical obstacle to IT management, there are important drivers, such as immediate action that will force managers to take emergencies to deal with urgent matters without compromising organizational objectives. Thus it also proves to be vital driver to IT management.

Purpose: This research was carried out to investigate on the strategic impediments facing IT managers with regard to their attitudes and organizational perception. The study involved effective drivers of management, which constituted individual obstacles that IT administrators and technicians face during their objective implementation.

Methodology: A mixed method of qualitative (focus group discussion) and quantitative (a survey with a questionnaire) approaches was applied to this study. These involved group discussion of IT technicians and administrators in the selected organizations in a Canadian province. The total number of surveyed managers was 147.

Results: With regards to the drivers of management, it was established that the driver of emotions holds the highest consideration towards attitudes, management and employee motivation. This driver had, a frequency recorded 137, mean of 3.6923, median of 3.800 and standard deviation of 0.81950. The driver of rules was after analysis found to have a frequency of 145, a mean of 3.107, median of 3.400 and standard deviation of 0.76265. The driver of immediate action had a frequency of 134, mean of 3.1448, median of 3.200 and standard deviation of 0.86135. The driver of integrity had a frequency of 134, mean of 3.0489, median of 3.00 and standard deviation of 0.90948. The driver of initiatives had a frequency of 138; mean score of 3.4214, median of 3.45 and standard deviation of 0.85542. The summary of the report has been presents in table 2.

Conclusion: This study is focused on the impediments experienced by IT managers as they implement their objectives. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that, there are some impediments associated with drivers of Emotions, immediate action, Rules and initiatives. Even if these obstacles are in multiple levels to develop and promote IT management and objective implementation skills, it is imperative to study with more depth obstacles faced by IT managers in order to better understand how obstacles they face represent an impediment to the development of their competencies and effective performance in IT.

Keywords: Information Management, Strategic and Objective implementation, Information technology (IT), Information and Communication Technology (ICT)